AN: This story was inspired by Out of the Dark by Derain Von Harken on the space battles forums.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Warhammer 40K games, books, comics of movies. They belong to their respective creators and/or copyright owners. This story is not created with commercial aim. I make no money from it.

The war of the Ancients

=TWA=

Prologue:

Armageddon 1.1

FoM "Damocles"

First fleet flagship

High orbit above Earth

Sol System

Deep within the thirty kilometers long, dagger shaped assault ship, one of her most protected compartments was drowning in twilight. Only faint lights thrown by stations meant to oversee and direct Damocles' operations prevented pitch black darkness from claiming the place.

Only two things could be heard within the CIC – quiet whine coming from the life support system which was cycling in cool air and level breathing.

Fleet Admiral James Halcyon stood in front of his seat – which was situated in the very center of the compartment. His eyes were closed and as his mind strode through his flagship's network.

"Scans complete." Solace, the Damocles' AI, whispered in Halcyon's mind. Her usually soothing contralto, sounded flat, emotionless – a clear sign that she had suppressed her emotional centers.

"I can see that." The Admiral muttered.

Earth, the cradle of humanity was dead. The once majestic cities were little more than forests of twisted metal. The deep shelters meant to survive vicious orbital strikes were turned into tombs from relentless bombardment.

The Citadel – the Federation of Man's nerve center, which was buried deep under the Himalaya mountains was silent. Gone. Eleven kilometers of honeycombed mountain chock full with shield emitters, battle steel and every defense weapon known to man had been carved like a Christmas turkey. The whole Himalayan range was simply gone – clawed apart to reach the juicy target below.

The firepower needed to achieve that feat had been more than enough to sterilize Eurasia and Africa. Australia had been buried under tidal waves and orbital strikes like a modern Atlantis. The Americas were seas of slowly cooling magma. Antarctica had been shattered.

The beautiful floating cities James remembered from his youth had been swept from the skies and he could find no remains of them.

There were dozens of them, each containing more than a billion souls and they were simply gone.

Halcyon skimmed through the rest of the report. It was the same everywhere – the only living people in Sol were on board of his ships.

The failure tasted like the ashes of trillions dead. Below him was the once lush jewel in the Federation's crown, humanity's cradle. It was a death world chocked by a brown cloud of smoke and debris which would persist for hundreds of years. Above him was the nearly shattered ruin that was Luna. All around him were the ships of First fleet, which had arrived too late and a large field of debris where Home fleet had fought and died.

Alone.

"Admiral, we just received a message from FleetCom on Eden." Solace stated.

Halcyon sighed. Eden… it was Earth's twin – a carefully re-scluptured world in a star system that was eery similar to Sol. After nearly a thousand years of stellar engineering, the whole star system had been turned into a nearly perfect copy.

So at least Eden was still alive as expected. After all it was thousands of light years coreward from this mass grave and almost in the center of the Federation of Man. While that system was nowhere nearly as well defended as Sol, it could enjoy fast reinforcements from multiple sector fleets.

It was not so for the homeworld. Earth's location – relatively close to a spiral arm's tip made it somewhat isolated. Just a few massive warp storms were enough to slowdown first fleet so they would arrive long after the homeworld had been murdered by the traitorous Iron Men.

"Give me the gist." The Admiral muttered.

"We're ordered to abandon the sector 01. As of a week ago, First fleet is the only combat capable Federation force in the area."

"I see." Halcyon muttered. "Strategic situation?" He dully asked.

"Omega. All federation fleets with the sole exceptions of Fifth at Eden and us are heavily engaged. We've lost contact with multiple sectors and have reports of ground fighting on practically every inhabited world."

So this wasn't the end yet, though he could see it from here.

"Strategic simulation predictions?" The Admiral asked.

"Odds of victory are drifting between thirty seven and forty four percent contingent on situation with sectors out of contact. Odds of the Federation recovering if victorious – between five and seventeen percent contingent on warp storm phenomena. Can't model warp events with higher accuracy while emotional suppression is active." Solace reported calmly. "Do you wish to view the simulations?"

"That won't be necessary." The Admiral muttered. He didn't want to see mankind tearing itself apart in excruciating detail.

A chime sounded through the network.

"Admiral, we received a new message. It requires your codes to decrypt."

James frowned and called the file. It was an innocuous looking bundle with a simple designation – Section 0.

"Solace, go to standby mode and cut all feeds to the bridge on my command. Dump the message in the CIC network then physically isolate it. Alpha-Charlie-Theta-Seven-Zero-Two-Three-Niner-Brabo-Strike-Strike-Strike. Execute."

"Affirmative."

A moment later the network shrunk around Halcyon and become much dimmer, when Solace pulled out. The Admiral ran a check to ensure that the net was indeed secure, then he touched the message. It blazed across his mind and demanded his personal codes – the ones hard-wired into his cortex implants. A mental command later and the requested information was sent. It felt like a cold stream erupted from his mind and drove through the message. It blinked twice, then a third time before it shifted and transformed into a data stream which flowed into his implants before deleting itself from the network.

The message contained two parts. The first was one he could freely share – official orders and dossiers on half a dozen Eldar. First fleet was to hunt them down, take their leader alive and interrogate him.

The second was a strategic assessment of the situation and a set of contingency orders to be executed depending on the situation.

Section 0 apparently agreed with Solace. Barring a miracle, the Federation was going to unravel a few centuries after achieving a victory over the Iron Men… if they could actually win anyway.

He had to prepare a fail safe for when, not if, the Federation died. A redoubt that could preserve and eventually restore human civilization.

Halcyon skimmed over the contingencies and winced. To say that they were extreme measures was an understatement.

That wasn't the first time today that the Admiral was almost glad for the emotional suppressor that was a part of his cortex implant. He was also almost glad about the fact that regulations demanded any flag officer and starship commander have theirs active upon entering a potential battle zone.

That was the only reason seeing Sol turned into one vast graveyard didn't break him.

Halcyon exited the CIC network, sat on his chair and pressed a button on the left arm-rest. A burst of codes from his cerebral implants the local network was once again a part of Damocles' larger one. Another command and Solace was back online and fully operational.

"Orders Admiral?" The AI asked.

"As we depart, detach two tenders to Earth, one to Saturn and another to Jupiter." Halcyon sent a highly compressed file from his implants to Solace. "Have them start building this." The Admiral ordered. Don't open it." He added.

"It's done." The AI stated a few laser-comm burst transmissions later.

"Call a conference for my senior fleet and ground forces officers in two hours. In person, Conference room A. You can bring the CIC crew back in as well. General order to the fleet: Remain on station, set condition two and continue patrols." The Admiral ordered and headed for the armored doors separating the CIC from the rest of the ship.

Despite the suppressor's best efforts, Halcyon was shacking with barely restrained fury. He had went on over the official orders and the given reasons as he gave the orders.

Section 0 suspected that an Eldar Cabal was responsible for the Iron uprising. The six dossiers he was sent contained everything the Federation knew about those responsible.

The suppressor sent more chemicals and weak energy impulses in the Admiral's brain, while the man's fury continued to grow.

The Eldar were going to pay, even if it was the last thing he was going to do, Halcyon vowed to himself just as the armored doors opened, revealing the shocked faces of the CIC's crew.